1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to the field of data storage. In particular, the invention relates to the field of data storage on optical storage media.
2. Description of the Related Art
Storage media are often less reliable in the drive towards an optimal cost/performance balance at the low-end of the consumer spectrum. As storage becomes a commodity, poor manufacture and design often lead to long term reliability problems. Often, optical storage media cannot be read due to degradation of the data and hard disks are often more predisposed to corrupting data as the storage density increases. Higher storage densities and different material types are likely to increase long-term reliability issues.
It is well known that optical storage media should be capable of surviving damage to the physical disk, for example damage, such as, scratches and small holes. Optical storage media should also be able to recover data using robust and efficient Reed-Solomon and CRC codes. However, large parts of the optical storage medium can become unstable and may quickly overwhelm such methods hence resulting in the loss of data.
Traditional methods of archiving data do not protect loss of data if the only backup data is stored on the optical storage media. Thus if the optical storage media is damaged at the location the data file is stored, the data file can not be retrieved. Likewise, if two copies of data are stored on the optical storage medium at the same location and the optical storage medium becomes damaged, the data file are unable to be retrieved and hence both copies of the data are lost.
Thus there is a need for a new method of guarding against long term reliability issues and significant physical damage of the optical storage media.